History Main / CoverIdentityAnomaly

* [[spoiler: Renard Vulpes]] in ''VideoGame/AviaryAttorney'' goes by Juan Querido, prince of Spain. Problem is that's actually pretty easy to check -- there are no significant princes of Spain and "Querido" is probably not a real name. However, only his defense attorneys bother to look that up. Despite him being charged for murder and attempted murder of the king of France.

* In ''Film/MurderOnFlight409, Mona Briarly becomes suspicious that Father Thomas Healey is [[BadHabits not a real priest]] when he makes no move to offer last rites when Dr. Walker is working to save Otto Gruenwaldt from a potentially fatal heart attack. Later, she speaks to him and gets a look at his hands and observes he wearing nail polish.

* In ''Film/MurderOnFlight409, Mona Briarly becomes suspicous that Father Thomas Healey is [[BadHabits not a ral priest]] when he makes no move to offer last rites when Dr. Walker is working to save Otto Gruenwaldt from a potentially fatal heart attack. Later, she speaks to him and gets a look at his hands and observes he wearing nail polish.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS22E2 The Stitcher's Society]]", a PrivateInvestigator joins the eponymous society: a support group for survivors of heart surgery. However, as he has never had heart surgery, he lacks the distinctive 'zipper' scar down the centre of his chest. This ends badly for him when the killer sees him without a shirt and realises that he is an imposter and must have an ulterior motive for being there.

* ''Series/MastersOfTheAir'': In ''[[Recap/MastersOfTheAirS1E04PartFour Part 4]]'', the [[{{UsefulNotes/Belgium}} Belgian]] [[LaResistance Resistance]] interrogates several downed American Airmen to see if any of them are genuine or [[TheMole a German infiltrator]]. [[spoiler: The interrogator becomes suspicious of one of them when he writes the current date the European day-month-year style rather than the American month-day-year style. Later, when one of the Belgians asks the supposed airman for a light, the lighter he pulls out is not an American "Zippo" lighter ubiquitous to the US Military but rather an Austrian Model, something no American would realistically have access to, much less have on hand, thus giving him away. The moment they see this, they shoot the infiltrator on the spot]].

* ''Series/MastersOfTheAir'': In ''[[Recap/MastersOfTheAirS1E04PartFour Part 4]]'', the [[{{UsefulNotes/Belgium}} Belgian]] [[LaResistance Resistance]] interrogates several downed American Airmen to see if any of them are genuine or [[TheMole a German infiltrator]]. [[spoiler: The interrogator becomes suspicious of one of them when he writes the current date the European day-month-year style rather than the American month-day-year style. Later, when one of the Belgians asks the supposed airman for a light, the lighter he pulls out is not an American "Zippo" lighter ubiquitous to the American Military but rather an Austrian Model, something no American would realistically have access to, much less have on hand, thus giving him away. The moment they see this, they shoot the infiltrator on the spot]].

* ''Series/MastersOfTheAir'': In ''[[Recap/MastersOfTheAirS1E04PartFour Part 4]]'', the [[{{UsefulNotes/Belgium}} Belgian]] [[LaResistance Resistance]] interrogates several downed American Airmen to see if any of them are genuine or [[TheMole an infiltrator]]. [[spoiler: The interrogator becomes suspicious of one of them when he writes the current date the European day-month-year style rather than the American month-day-year style. Later, when one of the Belgians asks the supposed airman for a light, the lighter he pulls out is not an American "Zippo" lighter ubiquitous to the American Military but rather an Austrian Model, something no American would realistically have access to, much less have on hand, thus giving him away. The moment they see this, they shoot the infiltrator on the spot]].

Compare StereoFibbing, for when two characters have to make up a lie on the spot to get out of this situation. Contrast ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory. Depending on the situation, this trope may even be an [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated Version]] of ImposterForgotOneDetail; but whereas with that trope the detail-in-question is usually something relatively minor that anyone can overlook [[note]] Such as, say, an imposter walks too well whereas the real person has a small limp [[/note]] , ''this'' trope would be where the detail is so big it’s as though the imposter utterly FailedASpotCheck in their research/preparation... if there was any to begin with[[note]] Where the imposter walks at all, but the real person lost both legs and uses a wheelchair [[/note]]. Can cause a LegendaryImpostor to be exposed.

* ''Series/MastersOfTheAir'': In ''[[Recap/MastersOfTheAirS1E04PartFour Part 4]]'', the [[{{UsefulNotes/Belgium}} Belgian]] [[LaResistance Resistance]] interrogates several downed American Airmen to see if any of them are genuine or [[TheMole an infiltrator]]. [[spoiler: The interrogator becomes suspicious of one of them when he writes the current date the European day-month-year style rather than the American month-day-year style. Later, when one of the Belgians asks the supposed airman for a light, the lighter he pulls out is not an American "Zippo" lighter ubiquitous to the American Military but rather an Austrian Model, something no American would realistically have access to, much less on hand, thus giving him away. The moment they see this, they shoot the infiltrator on the spot]].

* ''Series/MastersOfTheAir'': In ''[[Recap/MastersOfTheAirS1E04PartFour Part 4]]'', the [[{{UsefulNotes/Belgium}} Belgian]] [[LaResistance Resistance]] is interrogating several downed American Airmen to see if any of them are genuine or [[TheMole an infiltrator]]. [[spoiler: The interrogator becomes suspicious of one of them when he writes the current date the European day-month-year style rather than the American month-day-year style. Later, when one of the Belgians asks the supposed airman for a light, the lighter he pulls out is not an American "Zippo" lighter ubiquitous to the American Military but rather an Austrian Model, something no American would realistically have access to, thus giving him away. The moment they see this, they shoot the infiltrator on the spot]].

* ''Series/MastersOfTheAir'': In ''[[Recap/MastersOfTheAirS1E04PartFour Part 4]]'', the [[UsefulNotes/Belgium Belgian]] [[LaResistance Resistance]] is interrogating several downed American Airmen to see if any of them are genuine or [[TheMole an infiltrator]]. [[spoiler: They become suspicious of one when he writes the current date the European day-month-year style rather than the American month-day-year style. Later, when one of the Belgians asks the supposed airman for a light, the light he pulls out is not an American "Zippo" lighter ubiquitous to the American Military, but rather an Austrian Model; something no American would realistically have with them, thus giving him away. The moment they see this, they shoot the infiltrator on the spot]].

* The first season finale of ''Series/MrAndMrsSmith2024'' has John and Jane, a pair of government assassins, having been tracked and surveilled by an agent of...Southbey's. It turns out that while their covers can fool any law enforcement agency, real estate firms know something is seriously wrong about two "software engineers" being able to afford [[FriendsRentControl a Manhattan brownstone with garage and pool worth at least $2.5 million.]]

** In "The Time Warrior", while helping UNIT with a case of suddenly missing scientists, the Doctor runs into a young scientist by the name of Smith. The Doctor praises her on that virology paper she published, especially since given her age she would've had to have written it when she was ''five''. At which point Sarah Jane Smith admits she's not really a scientist (that's her aunt, who's away in America), just a journalist.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "The Stitcher's Society", a PrivateInvestigator joins the eponymous society: a support group for survivors of heart surgery. However, as he has never had heart surgery, he lacks the distinctive 'zipper' scar down the centre of his chest. This ends badly for him when the killer sees him without a shirt and realises that he is an imposter and must have an ulterior motive for being there.